So I love harissa. It's wonderful. You should always have it in the kitchen/fridge. This keeps really well in a sealed jar. Pop abit of olive oil on top to keep the air off it.
What you'll need:
- 250g long, fresh red chillies
- sea salt
- 3 heaped teaspoons of caraway seeds, ground
- 3 heaped teaspoons of cumin seeds, ground
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 roasted & peeled red bell pepper
- 1 heaped tablespoon of tomato purée
- 1 and bit tablespoon of red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Chop the stems off chillis, cut them in half then with a teaspoon scrap membrane and seeds from the inside and roughly chop. Blend them with a pinch of salt, half of each of the spice seeds and the garlic cloves until smooth. Keep blending till they're smooth (no little bits) Add the bell pepper and the rest of the spice seeds, the purée and vinegar, and blend again until very smooth. Transfer it to a mixing bowl. Add the olive oil. Don't add the oil when in the blender. Blending the oil in will make the harissa turn a creamy colour. Sprinkle paprika on top of the oil and stir in. Taste and season if you need to balance the vinegar.
I sterilised two 220g jars and it pretty much fills these. In the batch I made today I used some amazing smoked olive oil I pick up in Fallon & Byrne a while ago. Everything for this recipe came from F&B which is rather handy.